I did an interview in the Atlantic this week about the recent decisions on DADT. I think they did a good job of portraying my position and comments on milblogs as a whole. What has been your reaction and the reaction of the milblogger community to last week's legislative flurry surrounding Don't Ask, Don't Tell? While many of us believe that it's about time, I think there's been kind of mixed feelings as to why it had to happen now. The reason we wrote the letter we did was not to force a repeal, but to encourage Congress to take a look at how the law could be practically implemented. The military had been asking for a plan for the implementation of repeal for some time, looking to determine how the Don't Ask, Don't Tell could be efficiently and effectively incorporated into existing operations. This was supposed to precede an actual call for repeal. Congress kind of short-circuited that for political reasons. They wanted to get on the record as having done something before the November elections. There's a little disappointment that the actual vote for repeal was fast-tracked before a plan was drawn up. Admiral [Mike] Mullen and Secretary of Defense Gates had asked for Congress to wait before a survey was finished and before we could speak to as many troops as possible with a plan on how to implement this repeal. And even though threes a plan in place, in terms of the 60 day Pentagon review, it sort of sends a message to the troops that there opinion wasn't needed. That was the mistake. The whole piece is here.
Read the complete post at http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Blackfive/~3/NcnZKapLuCg/interview-in-the-atlantic-on-dadt.html
Posted
Jun 04 2010, 03:44 AM
by
BLACKFIVE